Colorado-class Battleship
The Colorado class is a group of battleships designed prior to the outbreak of the Coalition invasion of America, and pressed into service before the Battle of Neviston. Design & History While the four Redemption class, and three Pennsylvania class battleships had hard-earned reputations of victories of enemies, as global tensions rose again, the sector of the Navy under Neil Guys command saw that the so-called "Unsinkable Seven" and their armament would prove inadequate against modern warships. At the front of everyone's mind was the Lord Pemberton class battleships, which they estimated outmassed the Pennsylania''s by almost 2:1. Faced with this sort of threat, Guys USN proposed the ''Colorado class. Unlike previous classes, which were designed with general ship-to-ship and ship-to-land combat in mind, the "Collies" were designed with a singular purpose in mind: to hunt and destroy enemy heavy and super battleships. The hull design that was the base of the Redemption and Pennsylvania classes was thrown out as unsuitable. What the design teams came up with was one that was over 300 meters longer, and 25 meters wider. The previously standard 15' wing turrets were removed in favor of more primary weapons, for which the 20.8' guns planned for the refits of the Redemption class were selected and allocated. It was ultimately decided to "make it a porcupine of 53cm gunss", ending up with 21 dual-gun turrets, along the center-line: four forward, two amidship, and three aft, and on each wing: two forward facing front, one amidship facing front, and three aft, two facing back, and one facing front. The Colorado''s also introduced the "Skids", two rows of buoyant material protruded from the underside of the hull on either side of the keel. The result was that the ships' surface contact with the water was lower than it would normally be, reducing resistance, and allowing faster acceleration. Ten ships were constructed, though none of them were ready in time to see action at the Naval Battle of Texas, though that battle proved that the previous classes couldn't stand alone against modern heavy battleships. All ten however, took part in the counter offensive planned to knock the Empire of Kevin out of the war. Two of the class, ''Colorado and Maine went in with Guys 1st Fleet, while four were assigned to both 2nd and 3rd Fleets. Maine was the first to claim a capital ship victim, sinking a Lord Pemberton early in the battle before succumbing to concentrated enemy fire. Before the battle was over, the class had thrown missile and gun salvos at every Lord Pemberton''class ship present, though only two others, in addition to ''Maine''s victim, were confirmed to have sunk by their fire. In return, ''Maine, Ohio, and Wisconsin were lost at the battle, and Colorado and Idaho had taken heavy damage. After both the Battle of Neviston, and Admiral Guys surrendering of himself to the Coalition at Aubrey Base, the remnant Admiralty held an investigation into the Colorado''s effectiveness. Criticism The investigation found that, among other issues, the main down draw to the class was what was intended be its greatest strength: the number of primary weapons. The problem specifically pointed out was the interaction of the the midship centerline and wing turrets. While the wing turrets were able to perform as designed, capable of firing at targets off the opposite side of the ship, it was found that timing the traversing of the turrets was critical, and otherwise the barrels would interfere with the other guns. It has since been proposed to refit the ''Colorado''s to remove some or all of the midship turrets, but resource allotment by the USNiE means that priority is given to the construction of the new ''Tennessee class. Ships of the Class Category:Vessel Classes by I am that guy Category:United States Ships Category:Battleships